Need advice on clearing a title with multiple banks out of business...

[Jessie Martin]

I am under contract on a short sale with Chase and have a very tight deadline for settlement mandated by the bank. My title insurance company did a search and came up with 6 open liens on the property, all but two I have been able to prove cleared. One is a tax lien which is in the process of being transferred. The other is a Deed of Trust with 1st Mariner dating back to '99 for 333K - what appears to be the purchase of the property. The current owner refinanced every couple of years and with banks being bought up like crazy the records are a mess. This is what we have determined...The current amount owed to Chase on the property is 800K and strangely they are listed as a second lien to 1st Mariner which makes me certain that there is an error in the records because Chase believes they are first lien-holders. Here is the trail as described by the current owner: 1st Mariner Lien for 333K for purchase of property in '99 was sold to Ocwen which was purchased by GMAC. Before GMAC went out of business the owner refinanced with Washington Mutual who merged with Chase. Unfortunately Chase has as of yet been unwilling to take the time to provide any documentation with regards to these issues (or so we are being told by the sellers REA). My title insurance company is unwilling to do anything further and is just trying to sell us an extra 30K policy to cover the issues.
My question is:
1) Can I contact Chase directly on this matter or will they only talk to the owner and the owners REA?
2) If I can't talk to Chase directly what direction should I go next as our deadline is less then 30 days away?
I know some of you are heros at clearing titles and any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, please let me know if anything needs clarification and I'll do my best...